Silent Loud
by Hatoralo
Summary: The Curse of Silent Hill can take many forms. One can bring it upon others, the town may seek out the guilty to punish and possibly redeem them or you are drawn to it for other reasons. Leni Loud, second-oldest of the Loud Family finds herself in a nightmarish world she doesn't know with only the goal to find her family again who is also trapped in this surreal and hostile world.
1. Leni Alone at Home

**First of all I want to apologize for any form of Grammatical error because English isn't my first Language.** **  
I would nothing have against some help with it though and I try to improve.**

 **Second:**  
 **Inspiration of this story struck me out of nowhere. I don't know but I thought about the Loud House and Silent Hill, more and more and suddenly…**  
 **Yes! I wanted to write a The Loud Family/Silent Hill Crossover.**

 **Third:**  
 **Any form of constructive criticism is welcome.**

 **Fourth:**  
 **I had proof-reader for this story and he was a big help.**

 **And now enjoy the story my dear readers.**

* * *

 **Silent Loud**

Chapter 1: Leni alone at home

It didn't feel right.  
She knew it from the second she awoke that something wasn't right.

Leni Loud slowly opened her eyes and looked at the ceiling of the room she shared with her older sister Lori. The ceiling didn't look much different at first glance but then she noticed that it looked older and more derelict usual.

She looked around.  
"What…?"  
She jumped out of her bed. Her entire bed was dirty, brown with some red specks and only with a hint of the original colour it once had.  
The same was true for the rest of the room, which didn't look much better if not worse than her bed.  
Everything was either destroyed or looked very old.

"Who did this?", Leni cried in anger. Was this a bad joke from Luan?  
Not thinking she tried to storm out of her room but couldn't because the door was closed.

"Luan, let me out at once!"  
She hammered against the door. "Anyone out there?! Let me out guys! It is scary and dirty in here and I think my favourite movie is still in the DVD-Player."  
After she wasn't receiving an answer from anyone fear started to slip into her heart.  
"This isn't funny! When Lori see's what you did with our room she will like you kick your butts!"  
Nothing. No answer, no sounds her sisters and brothers would make.

"Like okay, then I'll let myself out!"

She removed a bobby pin from her hair and picked the look too her room.  
To her distress the hall of the house wasn't looking much better than her own shared room. It had the same atmosphere and appearance as the room she was in a few seconds ago and. Derelict, old, abandoned.

"Guys? Anyone?"  
Leni tried to open the doors to her sister's rooms but they were all closed.  
Even Lily's and Lisa's room who normally open at all times.  
"I'm not doing this to like invade your privacy guys", Leni assured more herself than the others as she tried to open the door to her youngest sisters.  
But it didn't work.  
She tried it with every door in the hall but regardless of what she did she wasn't able to open them.

Leni didn't understand this. Did mom and dad buy better locks?  
"Mom, Dad!"  
She didn't had thought about them. She ran downstairs and looked for them around.  
"Mom, Dad! Are you here?"  
She called for them as loud as she could running, searching their bedroom, the living room, the kitchen, the cellar, every room in the house.  
No trace of them but the appearance of decay and neglect.

"Where are you guys? This isn't a joke right?"  
Sad and at the end of her wisdom she Leni slumped onto the bed of her parents.  
"Why is everyone gone and why is the house in such a bad state? Did we like miss our cleaning schedule?"  
Leni wasn't able to remember the last time they cleaned the house thoroughly.  
"But can a house really look so bad after one day of neglect?"

She couldn't shake the feeling that something wasn't right. A view out of the window didn't lighten her fears at all.  
"Fog?"  
She got up from her bed for a closer view. The entire area was enveloped in a very thick fog, making it difficult for her too see anything outside the house.

"Derelict house, thick fog… Like in one of those horror movies or a survival horror videogame."  
She loved to watch some good horror. She wasn't good at video games but she had mastered the use of YouTube after a few weeks of trial and error. This way she knew about some of the best horror videogames.

Leni looked around in fear. Could be there a monster here? But she didn't notice anything monstrous in the house and the only noticeable thing was something written in black over the headboard of her parents' bed she hadn't noticed right away during her search.

 _"Your sisters aren't here anymore. They are elsewhere."_

"Does that mean… They are here too?!"

New fear gripped Leni's heart. The thought of her family being at a scary unknown place worried the second-oldest more than her own safety. She started to search the house again, this time for more clues.

It wasn't pretty to search for anything in the house. Things were either grimy, rusty, dirty, old or all at once. Only few things in this mess of a house were still clean.

"Mom and dad will get so mad then they see this but Lana will love it. Lola not so much".

She found different things like a few little drink bottles with golden colored label which read "Med Plus" written on it in red and white and a Flashlight which she could attach to her clothing.  
Leni tasted a little from one of the drink. "Not poisonous, but not that tasty. Bleh!"

In her shared room she found another clue, a memo and a key.

 _"The key to your house. The seventh is at a place where the past lies."_

"Like what is that supposed to mean?", she asked to herself out loud. "What does it mean with key to my house? I have only a shared room."  
The other clue was even more complicated.  
"Seventh? Like seventh what?" Like a seventh piece of pie? A seventh man? Like a seventh child? Child… Seven… We are like eleven children… And the seventh was… Like… Lola! No, Luan. Wait, no Lucy! Lucy was the seventh born!"  
And she knew exactly where she could find her little goth-sister: On the graveyard!  
"Or on in a place where 'the past lies' whatever what means."

After reaching this conclusion her head started to hurt.  
"Oooohhhh…. What….?"  
Something flashed before her closed eyes.

* * *

 _Leni showed her sisters and brother something she had acquired on a travel from which she returned today.  
"Isn't it great?! I only had to pay like 50 Cent for it!" _

* * *

Leni rubbed her head after the sudden headache but had to smile.  
"50 Cent! Somebody made a deal! But who?"

* * *

"First Aid Kit, something to eat, some stuff to drink, the strange drinks I found, the flashlight all the knives from the kitchen, the frying pan and a backpack and handbag to transport it all."

Gathering the stuff she thought she could need wasn't difficult nor was difficult to leave the house.  
But now she had to gather her courage to step into the fog and find her way to the graveyard.  
Alone.  
Without a car.  
Without anyone to call who could help her.  
"Nobody here… So I can be gone as long as I want today!"  
It was not a great thing in this bad situation but it made Leni happy.

"Sisters, I will find you! I will find you wherever you are and… I should not forget to buy some toilet paper on the way back."

* * *

 **I know it is short but I think a simple Character like Leni wouldn't have to many complex thoughts on such a strange occurrence at first.  
More complex stuff be added in the story over time.**

 **Any constructive criticism is welcome, I want to improve my writing skills after all.**


	2. Radio

**This chapter took some time to write originally it was way longer but then I decided to split it into two chapters because of its length. I also thought so much new stuff would be a little too much for a single chapter.**

 **Have fun reading.**

* * *

 **-**

 **Radio**

 **-**

The streets were empty and Leni Loud didn't hear one familiar sound.  
The atmosphere was incredibly chilling and the blonde girl looked nervously around for any sign of life.  
What had happened to the world after she went to sleep last night?

Leni wasn't the most intelligent person. Some people even called her an outright idiot sometimes.  
But even she knew that this wasn't right.  
 _/Was the area evacuated like in in a disaster-movie?/_ , Leni thought to herself while she wandered down the street. _/Like in that movie were those things ran very fast and the hero had to run away from the things and to get things to get to safety but safety was not guaranteed because the guys who should have protected them were even worse than the things outside. What was the name of the movie again?/_  
She didn't remember but she was happy that no infected-things came out of the fog to attack her so far.

The houses on the sides of the streets looked faded and abandoned too. Leni didn't want to knock on anyone's door. Her sisters were priority and she feared that somebody could answer her knocks, it could be something she didn't want to meet.

 _/Can I really be sure that this is a world of Monsters?/_ , Leni asked herself. _/Like maybe I am dreaming. If I dream I can fly!/  
_ Leni jumped into the air, wishing with all her heart she may fly into the sky.  
She figured out that she neither dreamed nor flew as she landed with her chin first on the hard asphalt.  
"AAAHHH! Like that hurt! Stupid non-dream tricked me into believing I could fly!"  
The young sister made a pouty face as she got up.  
"If this is a dream it is not a funny one."

* * *

Her goal was in a quiet part of the town. The cemetery of Royal Woods was implemented into a forest area with large old trees.  
She remembered a tale from Lucy about this place.  
"The dead bodies are good fertilizer for the trees and they grew large and strong", Lucy had told her. "It is just sad that they look so lively. They should look darker, gnarled and with knotholes that look like the faces of the damned in bad light." she told her older sister that day. "The bright atmosphere of this graveyard is depressing me" she had ended her tale then with a sigh.

Leni hoped that this place of the dead was still as bright before and therefore not creepy in the slightest, unlike the rest of this place.  
As she finally reached the edge of the forest she stumbled back as she saw some blood on the ground on an intersection.

"Blood? I hope this isn't Lucy's blood!" she called out loud in shock.  
"Lucy? Lucy are you here? Or is this your blood Lincoln? Or from anyone else? Guys?"  
She called for her siblings, for anyone into the fog for the slight glimmer of hope that somebody was nearby.

Then she spotted movement not far away from her. In the fog it looked like deformed person moving like a drunken pantomime.  
"Hey! Stop there! Like who are you? Like do you know what place this is?"  
The figure vanished in the fog and the older girl followed as quickly as she could.

"Stop! Like stay still!"  
This couldn't be one of her sisters, except if Luan was having a really bad joke with her right now.

"Luan if that is you like stop with this nonsense right now!"

At a street corner she saw more blood, more than before, smeared on the ground around the corner and leading to the left.  
The blonde continued to follow the trail in ignorance of possible danger.  
She thought what whoever bled so much was in need of help, even if it wasn't one of her sisters she would provide it.

She ran down the street and towards a grey looking houses with tiled roofs those whose white colours seemed to have faded over time. Another trail of blood lead her behind the house and to an unlocked cellar door. She opened said door and activated her flashlight.

 _/Like what is this noise I am hearing?/,_ she thought to herself while she descended with careful steps down into the old and worn down cellar. A mysterious piercing noise filled her ears the entire time and let her heart pound stronger.  
Her little flashlight illuminated the not much of the area but enough to see the way before her.

Reaching the ground she noticed a little portable grey radio on a dusty desk.  
"Like what is up with that radio?"  
She took the radio from the desk and played with the dial.  
"Hello? Can anyone hear me? Lana, Luna, Lori? Anyone?"  
She turned the dial, pressed buttons, turned the thing off and on but nothing else happened.

A loud noise sounded suddenly from behind her and Lori's heart stopped. Shaking, her hand wandered to one of her knives in her bag. She drew the sharp object out as slowly as possible before turning around to see nothing.  
Just a broom lying on the floor.  
"Hehe. Like it probably just fell to the ground from the movements I made."

She stayed cautious as she got up the stairs again which were creaking, something she hadn't noticed before.  
"Creaking stairs? How cliché!" she said to herself laughing in hope to dispelling her fear.

Ready to swing that knife she looked through the exit and saw nothing.  
No monster.  
Sighing in relief Leni left the cellar and turned around the corner, almost walking into a figure.

Leni froze. She had seen some scary things in her young life, real ones and fictional ones. But this was something different.  
A jerking, shaking brownish mass in dirty white-brownish clothes of something with no eyes or nose but a large mouth reaching from the forehead down to the belly.  
Like normal humans it had two arms and two legs but the palms of the hands were adorned with one mouth each and the same was true for the knees of this creature, all five mouths were gnawing, convulsing and moving like sinister demons, equipped with rows of normal but not less unsettling teeth.

As all five mouths screamed at once with a horrible ear-splitting sound Leni awoke out of her freezing stance.

She rammed the knife in its face but aside from some shaking and a bleeding wound, this had little effect on the monster.

Leni was relieved in a way.

For a moment she thought she may have stabbed Luan in the face. Such a bad and scary joke could be from her.  
But this wasn't Luan, this was a real monster and Leni wasn't a dumb blonde from a horror movie; she was a dumb blond who has watched many horror movies.  
Before the monster could retaliate she thrust the knife into the torso, the shoulders and the face until it dropped to the ground like a stone.  
Leni gave it a kick to the face afterwards just to be sure.

"Dead… What is this thing?"  
The adrenaline still pumped through her veins while she got a closer look at the dead monster.  
"What did I stumble into here? Like is it the only one?"

She then noticed that the radio had gone silent. She looked at it and noticed a little note which was stuck to the backside.

 _This radio can sense the creatures and warn you of their arrival. Keep it on at all times but be warned: Its noise can draw them to you._

This sounded like good advice for Leni and she decided to keep it on.  
But the thought of more encounters with creatures like that made her heart heavy.  
"I hope none of you guys ran into such a monster", Leni said with sorrow for her sisters in her voice. 

* * *

It didn't take very long for her to find the place she came from; the bloodstains were still there to guide her back.  
Leni didn't know what had bled over the streets. Whatever it was could had been in the cellar but she wasn't interested in going back to find out.

On her way to the cemetery she noticed more movements in the fog and from time to time heard a scream she assumed were from more monsters. Her radio had sprung to life whenever one of the creatures came closer to her and went silent when she got away from them.  
"I will like, not fight you", she said to one of them. "Like I know you want but I like, am not in the mood for this and my dress could get dirty."  
Luckily for the second-oldest those creatures were slow and she could easily outrun them. She wasn't as athletic as her younger sister Lynn but living in the Loud household where the `first one gets it´ rule was in effect for certain situations made it useful when you were able to run fast.

The main entrance for the cars to the Royal Woods Cemetery was closed by a large construction site and there was no door to enter it, just numerous iron bars, holding frameworks together and some white sheets over wire-mesh fences. She raced instead into the woods over an unpaved pathway.

She ran into another one of those creatures on her way, her radio playing the static noise.  
"Away you…you…you…" She stroked her chin and thought for a while.  
"Squaller!" Leni flicked snapped with her fingers about her epiphany. "Like you squall the entire time. That is so annoying of you and your friends."  
While Leni came up with the name for the Squaller it had enough time to come into range. It bit her with one of its palm hands while screaming even louder.

"Ouch!"

Leni shoved the thing from her away and to the ground.  
"Bad Squaller!"  
She took out her frying pan while the creature jerked on the ground. A few quick hits to the head and her radio went dead again.

"Doesn't look that bad…"  
The bite hadn't pierced her skin but there was a little bruise. Nothing to worry about now, she had to search for a sister.

* * *

 **A real horror scene at last. Not the last one of course. I request any form of constructive criticism.**

 **And if you like the story please like, comment and follow. I would say dislike if you dislike but this option isn't available, so a negative comment has to be used instead.**

 **Until next time dear readers!**


	3. The Cemetery

**Time for the most spookiest place in town! I thank my only commenter of this fanfic for showing interest in this work but also the followers and I have gathered so far. Every little bit helps to continue writing.**

* * *

 **Chapter 3: The Cemetery**

The words `Royal Woods Cemetery´ greeted the teenager over the entrance on a stone arch held by two plain looking pillars.  
This was the entrance to the graveyard. Leni hadn't visited this place very often in the past. Her family came here from time to time to visit the grave of Grand Grandma Harriet, though Lucy visited her frequently.

Leni's little sister said that she and Grand Grandma Harriet were friends and talked with each other often. Leni always wondered what they talked about but Lucy had said that only she was able to talk with her because of a deep connection to the darkness-thingy and the things and more stuff Leni hadn't really understood.  
She didn't really understand Lucy's somber lifestyle choices or her penchant for dark stories and other even darker prose.

 _/What is so great about the cemetery?/i_ , she thought to herself. _i/Like I don't get it. I should ask Lucy when I have found her./_

She crossed the gate and beheld the somber and silent appearance of this place of the deceased.  
The tombstones were arranged in lines with some trees and bushes along the way.  
Most of the graves and their tombstones looked somewhat groomed but a few of them looked damaged.

 _"_ _Here lies no hope, only desperation"_ _,_ Leni read on one of the gravestones.  
 _/Not very encouraging/,_ she thought.  
Others read _"_ _I was eaten by a monster"_ , _"_ _Nothing is real"_ , _"_ _The body in this grave is gone but nobody dug it up"_ , _"_ _I was killed by my loved ones"_ or _"_ _You should just kill yourself"_.

The epigraphs disturbed Leni and made her frown. She wondered who would write stuff like that down on a tombstone.  
Another inscription read "Behind you!"  
Leni turned around in shock but saw nothing behind her.  
"Hey! You tricked me! Bad tombstone." She wiggled her finger at the lifeless thing and continued on her way.

To her relief the cemetery of Royal Woods looked monster-free. No figures appeared in the fog and her radio was silent.  
"Lucy! Lucy! Are you here? Answer if you can hear me!"  
Calling out for her sister she wondered how her family may feel right now in this empty and eerie town, where they were and if they were safe.  
"Lucy, did you get attacked by a monster? They are weak to stabs in the face!"

She wandered along the graves and past different trees and found from time to time some more on some off the resting places. She just took them with her. They were very light and easy to transport.

Also they looked so collectible in her eyes.  
"Maybe they are energy drinks? Do you want one Lucy?", the second-oldest called out. "I will save one for you!"

She started to get used to this place. No monsters in sight and ways paved with flame-colored rectangular stones. _i_ /I never really observed this cemetery before. I bet Lucy knows this place like her own pocket./ _/i_

Leni noticed a large black tombstone in circular form ahead in an area with more trees. The tombstone was surrounded on the both sides and back with hedges and the tombstone was overgrown with twiners.

"Oh! Like looks mysterious. Or like the gardener is really bad at his job."  
She approached the large tombstone with care and noticed something lying on top of it.  
"Hey isn't that a…"

Aghast the girl in the green dress took a few steps back.  
It was a pistol on top of the tombstone.  
"Why… Why did somebody leave a pistol on this grave?"  
Leni was nervous. Her parents didn't have weapons because they hated them.  
Leni knew exactly what to do now: calling the police.

She took her smartphone.  
"Oh… Why didn't I try to contact the others first…?"  
Leni felt stupid, really stupid. She knew she wasn't the smartest (that was without a doubt Lisa) but she didn't think she would forget to call the others in a emergency situation like this one.  
 _i_ _/No time for self-pity/_ _/i_ , she thought with determination. _i_ _/I have to call them./_ _/i_  
She started with Lori on her contacts but she was not able to get through to her. She only got the message that the phone number dialed was supposedly not in service. The same was true for the numbers of her other siblings and the numbers of her parents; she couldn't contact any of them.

Saddened she wanted to put her smartphone away until she remembered somebody.  
"I forgot Lucy!"  
The entire family forgot her regularly, not only Leni. Even Lynn who shared a room with the young goth-girl forgot her from time to time. How they could forget her presence again and again was a mystery to Leni.  
She selected her number and got a ringing tone.  
"Answer, please answer Lucy", Leni begged.  
It stopped ringing.  
"Lucy?"  
No answer.  
"Lucy, it is me Leni, are you alright?"  
Still no answer.  
"Please answer!"  
Then an answer came with Lucy's voice.  
"Responsible."  
The call ended.

Leni just stared at the screen which displayed that the call was over.  
"Lucy… What do you mean with this? Why did you say nothing else?", she asked the smartphone.  
Her eyes wandered to the tombstone in search of advice and read the epitaph.

 _"Take the gun. You will need it. I don't have use for it anymore."_

Leni tried to call the police but she heard only sirens on the other end which turned into a staccato of distortion after a few seconds.  
She took the gun and looked at it intensely. It was a strange feeling for the older girl, holding a gun. She never had anything more dangerous in her hands than a knife or a frying-pan up until this point in her young life.  
Now she had something with the explicit function to kill somebody or something.

"Why is everybody so insane for these things? I hope I don't have to use it."

At second glance there was more text on the tombstone.

 _"Try the crypts. They contain interesting things_

 _P.S.: Behind you."_

Leni smirked. She wouldn't fall for this a second time and didn't move.  
The tiniest deep sounding voice croaked behind her while her radio suddenly emitted the noise again. Leni turned around in terror and behold a new… Thing.

It was a tiny pelvic-high monster with something that looked like a black lampshade instead of a head, at least it seemed to be a black in color. The rest of the little humanoid body was plain white but at a second glance it looked more pale than white. Its little hands and fingers made a small and harmless appearance but the same was not so true for the nasty looking fingernails sprouting from the delicate looking fingers.

It was just standing there while Leni fumbled around with the handgun she had just acquired and targeted the new Monster with it.

"Stay back! Like I never used a handgun before but…"  
The creature made a very sudden step and Leni started to fire at it out of surprise and fear.  
The recoil of the weapon made her tumble backwards against the tombstone which felt cold against her bare arms and the loud bang ringed in her ears. The unfamiliarity with real guns and the difference of how they are used in action-movies just taught her a lesson in gun handling. She clasped both her hands around the grip and continued to fire. Some of the bullets missed their mark but more than enough hit the little creepy pale creature to make it fall down to the ground to struggle and moan. Leni ran up to it and gave it a kick to the head and its struggles vanished like the noise from her radio.

Leni hold her chest and breathed heavily. Her legs were shaking and she looked around with a nervous glance. She couldn't fathom how this thing had managed to sneak up on her and she feared that there could be more of his ilk nearby.  
 _/I have to find Lucy fast before one of this monsters scares me to death./_

* * *

The crypts of the graveyard were located at different places. While she looked for one of them she looked behind herself every few steps in fear that another monster could turn up and scare her like before. She was afraid of another surprise attack and only her wish to find Lucy kept her from running back home like frightened puppy.

She found a crypt behind a wall, surrounded by trees like a suspicious welcoming committee. She checked the iron door and it was locked up but that was nothing her trusty bobby pins couldn't solve.

The smell of old air and something putrid filled meet her nose and Leni grimaced.  
"It smells a little like you Lucy… Lucy, are you in there?"  
No answer.

Leni turned her flashlight on and descended the few steps into the crypt. It wasn't a very large crypt and not-half bad in Leni's opinion. The walls had drawings of flowers around the alcoves in which the stone coffins were placed in and the arches on the ceiling looked byzantine.  
 _/Like not the best work but it could have been a commission with exact orders/_ , Lucy criticized the designs in her head.

She explored the crypt and found that all the graves in it were properly sealed except one which had a suspicious hole in it. Way too suspicious for Leni, too suspicious for somebody who loved to watch horror media. She took her handgun out of her bag belt and put the barrel on the edge of the hole. She fired a single shot and jumped back immediately afterwards.  
Nothing happened.

 _/Like better safe than sorry/_ , she thought to herself and put her hand into the hole.  
She rummaged around and didn't try to think that she probably was touching a dead person at the Moment. Her hand finally found something and pulled it out.  
It was a metallic coin, double in size of a one dollar coin and had on one of the sides a giraffe imprinted on it.

 _/Why was this in there/_ , Leni thought to herself. She expanded her search in the crypt but aside from a single clip for her handgun and another of those energy drinks she found nothing. She sighed because it felt like this place was just screwing with her.

She didn't really notice the croak behind her and turned only as her radio came to life. One of the little pale creatures had appeared behind her again. She tried to draw her gun but the little thing was faster this time. It ran up to her legs and scratched it with its surprisingly sharp nails. Leni Squealed in pain and kicked the thing to the ground. She screamed "You nasty little Lampshade", took out her knife instead and drove it into head of the little "Lampshade" until its movements halted and the noise stopped. Leni sighed in relief and annoyance as she heard another croak concurrent with her radio springing again to life. She whirled around with her knife, ready to stab the next little creature in the face but she only saw the lampshade leaving the crypt.

"Like odd….", she said to herself and put the knife back.

* * *

She was still unnerved being at a graveyard and surrounded by fog but she started to get used to it in some way. The reason for this was probably the fact that she feared to be surprised and attacked by another of those little Lampshade creatures more than the general atmosphere but it wasn't really helping.

From here on they started to appear from time to time behind her. Regardless how observant Leni was they always managed to appear behind her back without any chance of noticing them beforehand. The second-oldest Loud child started to sweat and her nerves pumped her full with adrenaline. The frying pan was in one hand and a long knife in the other.  
She tried to save ammunition in case something even worse could show up.

"Stay calm Leni nothing here can hurt you", she stated, trying to soothe herself. "Like there are the monsters and they can really hurt me but… Like not all that badly?"  
The attacks so far hurt but none had managed to draw blood.  
But she felt weaker despite this. She thought that it had to be the stress.

She soon reached another crypt west from the entrance and in the open on a crossroad. This one had gargoyles on the top of the corners and a domed ceiling. She didn't really care for the architecture so she didn't spend much time looking at the crypt. She only wanted to find Lucy and get out of her.

She unlocked the crypt with her lock picking skills, finding another magazine in it and also another coin in one of the stone coffins, this time the coffin was open and the coin wore the image of a Bear.  
 _/Like why another animal-coin? Am I supposed to buy something with this?/_

It wasn't different in a third crypt which was east to the first crypt she found and was constructed in a more modern style with tubular lamps in it. She was lucky this time because the light switch worked and illuminated the entire crypt quite nicely. She found two more energy drinks and another handgun clip but she didn't spot another coin.

 _/Like is this a dead end?/_ Leni looked around for something which could lead her the way. Something caught her eye, an upstanding coffin on the other end of the room. She crept slowly closer to the coffin which was larger than any of the other coffins so far and it looked more expensive with a gilded message on the lid.

 _Open with care. The key is inside where my words were.  
_  
"Another puzzle?", Leni asked herself while she pushed the lid of the coffin. It was very heavy and she had to push several times until it finally swung open.  
She was greeted by a very fresh looking human male corpse in a fine suit. The lifeless body was so well preserved that it seemed to be alive.

Leni stabbed the corpse with a knife in the heart just to be sure.

"Where the words were… Could it be… In a notebook!"

She searched the corpse for a notebook with some hesitance because she still really didn't want to touch a dead person. She looked in the pockets, in the shoes and the trousers and the jacket of the suit the corpse wear but found nothing. Frustrated and angry that she had to search a corpse for nothing she grabbed the deceased by his suit and shook the body.

"Where are your words?"

Thanks to the shaking the mouth of the dead person sprang open like a cap on a jack-in-a-box and spit out something that was wrapped around in a large piece of paper. She took the present and unwrapped it to be greeted by another coin this time with a Dingo punched on one side. But the piece of paper was interesting too.

"This looks familiar…", Leni wondered. "Like isn't that a page out of Lucy's poem book?"

 _Invisible_

 _by_

 _Lucy Loud_

 _They don't see me  
They don't notice thee  
I am like the air  
It is a curse to bear_

"Lucy…"  
Leni touched the words. She never wanted to ignore her but she almost always had to speak up to be acknowledged. She felt sad for her younger Goth sister and the corners of her mouth sunk down a little before she continued to read the poem.

 _Is it my fault  
Is around me a shroud  
Dislike or like this case  
I will find my place_

"A place?"

 _Monsters and Darkness  
Occult and Sadness  
They fascinate me a lot  
Being near them is my spot/i_

 _iI like the spot I shouldn't be  
I wish a Deacon could_ _see me_ _  
But I am invisible to all  
And that way nobody's thrall_

"Yes Lucy, you aren't a… A… Whatever a thrall is", acknowledged Leni loudly. "You are what you are."

She thought about the content of the dark poem. Something said to her that this poem of her might reveal her little sisters current location.  
While she was in thought she didn't register for the first few moments that the lights were out now but as she noticed it she whirled around.  
"What? Who? Lights?"

She turned her flashlight on and looked at a lampshade. Then she heard several Lampshade voices all around her. Cold sweat ran along her spine as she took a knife and her frying pan into the hands while turning in all directions. She was surrounded by the pale little monsters.

* * *

Blood dripped to the ground and soaked it outside of the modern crypt into a darker shade. Leni had won the fight but the Lampshades had gotten several good hits on her. They had scratched her skin open and were able to draw her blood before she had been able to hit and stab them to the ground and keeping them there. She felt dizzy, breathless, the adrenaline was still pumping through her system and she looked around for more danger.

 _/I could have died…/_  
She shook her head in defiance. Now wasn't the time to think about death, she had to care for her wounds.

She also noticed how thirsty she was.  
"I forgot to take something to drink with me!"  
She had even thought about taking a snack with her before leaving the house but nothing to quench the thirst coming from her dry throat.

"The energy drinks!", she proclaimed. "Like they may taste bitter but I'm totally thirsty right now".  
She popped one of the drinks open and swallowed it down. She felt instantly better, even her wounds had stopped to hurt. She looked at them and to her surprise they had vanished, not even a scar was left behind.

"This energy drink is like really good", Leni said in a delighted tone. "Like a wondrous elixir!" This was how Lisa had explained one of her mixtures to Leni once.  
It wasn't that wondrous, it only gave Leni the tail of a cat. Luckily she had the right outfit to go with it.

 _/Now think: The Poem said she is at a place she can't be with a Deacon. Who is Deacon? Wait… Lucy knew somebody named Deacon once and she said he worked in a church!/_

She went on her way.

* * *

The church of the Royal Springwood Graveyard was on the northern end of the place, far away from the sidewalk- and street-entrance of the cemetery.  
It was a small but pretty little old church made out of stone and granite with a little bell tower over the entrance and large oval-shaped doors.

Leni entered the church and beheld some beautiful stained-glass windows showing pictures of different saints doing holy things or depicting important events. She adored the craftsmanship and artistic achievement of whoever put those beautiful colored pieces of glass together and made her forget her situation for a few moments.

"Lucy! Deacon! Is one of you two here?"  
The church was empty, the pews abandoned. She searched around for more hints and found a little bit more ammunition for her handgun and another drink.  
"Who left all that stuff here?", she asked herself. "I hope I'm not stealing it from somebody."

She found a bible on the podium where a priest would read out of it for the churchgoers. She chose a part which was bookmarked and read: "Arise, for it is your task, and we are with you; be strong and do it."

On the page she was on there also more pieces of paper which were maps of the graveyard and the church. _/There is a cellar according to this map./_

The entrance to the cellar was in a room right and a little behind the podium.  
As the fashion-loving sister tried to open it she heard another croaking behind her accompanied by the radio static.  
She sighed, took her frying-pan and beat the "Lampshade" on the head until it struggled on the ground. "Like good that I expected that", she informed the creature before she kicked against its head to stop the thing for good.

* * *

Down a ladder, behind a trapdoor she activated her flashlight in the dark entrance area of the cellar. The walls around here were made out of cobblestone and they looked old. But more interesting was the door in this room.  
It was a mechanical looking door with cogwheels, hydraulics and mechanical linkages on the sides of the door.

The most interesting part was the picture on the door. It was a world map with 9 round gaps in them, 6 filled with the coins of different animals.

 _/Is this a puzzle? I like puzzles but I am bad at solving them. I always need Lisa's help with the more difficult ones./_

The animals on the 6 coins in the notches were a sea leopard, a sloth, a tiger, a moose, a hammerhead, a conger eel and a lionfish. Leni recognized a few of the animals but not all.

She rubbed her chin to figure out what this puzzle wanted from her to do. "The notches are on different continents and oceans and… Yes you can remove the coins."  
She continued to think until the solution struck her. "I know! I use the coins to remove the screws from this door until I get it open!"

* * *

Several hours of improvising later the door fell out of its doorframe. Leni wished the sweat from her forehead and took a few deep breaths. "Pretty hard puzzle."

She stepped through the puzzle door and found a room similar to the one before but this one had burning a torch on the west wall, illuminating the room with light but also filling it with wavering shadows like an ominous warning.

"Here goes nothing", she told herself as she grabbed the doorknob and turned it around.

Behind the door was the largest crypt yet with several stone coffins standing in line and a several alcoves in the walls, all illuminated thanks to strategically placed torches on said walls. In the middle of the room on a platform were two especially large stone coffins with several carved stone ornaments on them.

On one of the coffins was somebody with black hair which surrounded her head, a black dress and pale skin with the back turned towards Leni who approached the figure.

"Lucy?"

The being on the coffin turned around. This wasn't a lampshade realized Leni, this was the real deal.  
"Leni?", responded Lucy in her deep and somber voice. "Is that you?"

Silence filled the air between the two. They weren't sure I what to do now.  
But the mind of Leni found the quicker solution. In seconds she pulled her little sister into a heartfelt hug.

"Lucy! You are really here!", cried Leni out in Joy. The subtle fear in her heart that Lucy may be hurt or worse vanished in an instant.

"Yes, I am", replied Lucy in a calm tone. "But what are you doing here Leni?"  
"I was searching for you", Leni explained. "I thought I may find you here."

Then Leni's head started to hurt again and something flashed before her eyes.

* * *

 _Leni talked with Lucy. "I can't say if what you have is legit or not."_

* * *

"Leni? Are you alright?", Lucy asked with concern in her voice.  
The second-oldest opened her eyes again and nodded. "Yes, but we should get back to our house. This place isn't safe. Royal Woods is overrun with monsters!"

Lucy's expression was stoic. "Really? I didn't see any here. What happened Leni? First I fall asleep and when I wake up again I'm in the crypt of the graveyard church but the place looks somewhat different."

Lucy sighed. "I hoped the forces of the ether and the darkness would have summoned me to a place I could truly call home." Lucy looked at Leni. "But I couldn't tell why you would be here. What about the others?"

"I don't know", Leni admitted. "They could be here, Mom and Dad too. I'm very worried." Lucy's stoic facade didn't change as she listened to Leni's words. "You don't have to worry about me anymore, Leni."

Lucy wasn't the greatest on showing feelings but she tried. Leni smiled in return and said: "We have to go."

"Not now", responded Lucy in a serious tone. "After I awoke I looked into the coffins to find something that could me help to escape. I found some old manuscripts in some of them, pointing at something important in one of the main coffins. I was almost finished with this puzzle to open one of them as you entered."

"What puzzle?", Leni asked. "I solved one!" She showed Lucy proudly the door behind the first door she destroyed. "It took a long time to loosen the door."  
"Leni, you weren't suppo… Whatever." The two returned to the largest coffins. "I have to lay the right word into the stone lid of the coffin with those stone letters. And I think it is the word…"

She used the stone letters she had with her to form the word "HERETIC" into a rectangular field. The lid started to move and Lucy jumped down from it and stepped back from the coffin with her sister. The lid slid to the side before falling to the ground with a heavy thud.

The two sisters carefully peaked over the edge of the coffin, wary of anything which could spring fourth from this large coffin. The inside smelled and tasted like old air and had no corpse but a book as its content.

"Who would bury a book?", Leni wondered. "Maybe it was written in a dead language?"  
Lucy just stared at Leni who responded the stare with: "I have the joke from Luan."  
Lucy sighed.

Leni took the book out of its grave. The title was "Die Okkulte Weise" written by a guy called Ernst S. Schneider. "German", commented Lucy and opened the book. "But the text in the inside is in English and about the occult."

Leni took Lucy's hand. "You can read it at home Lucy. Now we…"

Suddenly a new noise sounded all around the two. Leni whirled around, shoved Lucy behind her and drew the pistol out of her bag but no enemy was in sight.  
"This sounds like a siren", Lucy commented. "But I don't see any sirens here."

It didn't sound like any siren they had ever heard. The noise was long and drawn out and it instilled the feeling that a horrible fate would hit them soon.

Leni didn't want to risk anything and ran towards the exit with her sister but as she tried to open the door, the door didn't budge. Leni pulled at the knob and kicked against the door but it still didn't budge.

"I don't understand, I was able to open it a few minutes ago!"

Leni looked around in panic and tried to figure a way out of this trap. She only saw coffins over coffins.

"One of the coffins had hole with a ladder in it", Lucy mentioned. "We could escape that way." She showed her sister the aforementioned coffin and it was how her sister described it. She couldn't see the bottom, even with her flashlight on and this worried her for a Moment until the siren became even louder.

"On my back", Leni ordered. "This way we will be faster."  
"I can climb mywuah!"  
Leni swung the younger sister on her back and forced her to wrap her small arms around the neck and her legs around the waist.

She started to descend he ladder as fast as she could with Lucy on her back, the booming noise of the sirens sounding in their ears. It pushed the fashionista to climb down faster into the unknown.

"It is driving us down there", Lucy sinisterly whispered. "Into the darkness, into another world."

Leni would have asked for Lucy what she meant by that but her radio started slowly to build up noise. She looked around and her eyes widened in horror. Monsters, Squallers and Lampshades were stuck in cages as big as they were. They screamed and squelched like they were in endless agony caused by an unknown terror.

"What are those?", asked Lucy, gazing at the Monsters in surprise.

"They are monster who attacked me", told Leni. "Stay behind me when you see them, your big sister will take them out."

After another minute of climbing down they finally reached the end of the ladder and firm ground. Lucy jumped to the ground. "Looks like one of the crypts on the graveyard."

The sister in the light-green dress took a look around. It looked like one of the crypts she had entered before but different. This one was also made in a byzantine style but different. Leni struggled to find the right word.

"Corrupted", Lucy finally said. "This place is corrupted. It isn't simply another world, this one is a special place."

Leni didn't understand. She noticed another note on one of the coffins. She took it and read out lout the following:

 _"June 24_

 _The Unbelievers, they come to this place not to hear the words of god but to mock him. They care for their fake believes, for their fake gods, their fake prayers, their fake rituals and their fake ideas._  
 _Why are they coming to this cemetery, to this church for their purposes? The dead are disturbed by their presence."_

"I don't disturb the dead", Lucy expressed in a more stern tone than usual for her. "If they don't want to talk I let them be."  
"That is the right mind-set", Leni lauded her sister. "You are a good girl."

They spotted the exit not long after. The door was rusty, brown and looked horrific.  
"I have no good feeling about this door", Lucy feared.  
Leni put her hand onto the doorknob and in her other was the handgun. "We have no choice. Stay behind me."

Leni opened the door with care and minded her Radio. Her grip around the pistol hardened and she stepped into the outside.

Before her was a place complete unknown to the Loud. Many of the shapes were the same but their look was… Leni didn't know what exactly. Corrupted, distorted, strange, twisted, those words appeared in her mind but one word came before all others:  
"It looks so… Otherworldly."

Lucy stepped into her outside and peaked over the sides of her sister. "I agree."

The ground of the graveyard, the earth and the paved ways were now more in a grisly orange or a rusty red respectively. The trees were now even darker and more foreboding than before. Now they had grimaces and the branches looked like long thin gnarly arms with hands which in turn had long spiky fingers.  
The sky was darker than before, but they couldn't see any stars in the sky. The lampposts Leni didn't gave much attention before produced an eerie orange light, illuminating this dark place.  
The tombstones had changed too in the most horrific way. Some were now black like onyx and very smooth, others transformed into a array of bones, some others had transformed into rough black coal and one especially bad case what made out of bones rotten flesh.

Inscriptions in different ghoulish colors were present on the tombstones but Leni wasn't interested. The tombstones in the other place already had some scary stuff written on them, she wasn't interested to know what they had to say in this hellish location.

Lucy wasn't that scared and walked up to one of them, one of the onyx-black markers of death and read the inscription.

"Lucy no!", Leni cried out perplexed how relaxed her sister was in this situation. "Don't go up to creepy tombstones without me. You don't know where they have been before."

Lucy ignored her and read on the tombstone:

 _"You know what this place is?_

 _It is not hell; hell gives you a fair chance. This is a place of people who would never grant you mercy. They want you to stop the life you are living, shame yourself what you are, what you think is right, how you dress, how you look and what you think the cosmic explanation is."_

"We are not in Royal Woods anymore", Leni expressed in a worried tone. "Even less so than before."

* * *

 **Another chapter is finished! And we finally have another sister! Now Leni has not to talk with herself anymore.^^**  
 **I thank my followers again and my Partner Mama Aniki who gave me morally support when it came to writing.**

 **If you like this then please like, comment and subscribe but if you dislike it then write constructive criticism for me to read. I wish for constructive criticism in general, so every constructive comment is appreciated.**


	4. Other Cemetery

**This Chapter was Proof-Read by ultrablud2, I thank him for his good work.**

 **Another time, another chapter.**  
 **I really take A LOT of time to write these at the Moments, mainly because writing "Platonic" takes a lot of my time. Also I work better and faster in a Team with my Partner MamaAniki.**

 **I like to write Leni in this situation. She makes for a great main character in my opinion.**

 **Now, prepare to face the horror of the Otheworld, a place more twisted than the Fog World could ever be.**

* * *

 **Chapter 4:**  
 **Other Cemetery**

* * *

Leni wasn't sure how hell would really look like but this place gave her an idea how a demon from hell would design a cemetery.

"Lucy, we will leave," decided Leni for them both. "This was not a safe place before and I don't want to know what we could encounter now."  
"Maybe this place could tell us what is happening here," Lucy objected. "We have to figure out what is going on."  
"Our safety comes first," Leni explained slowly. "Your safety comes first, Lucy."

Lucy sighed in defeat. She was interested in this strange and scary world but she was also wary of the danger.  
"Lead the way, Leni."

The two walked at a fast pace back to the entrance. Leni tried not to look at anything; she tried to stay focused on returning home.  
But as they reached the entrance, they made not the most pleasant recovery:  
The entrance was gone and instead there was now a giant gravestone blocking the way.  
"No escape," Lucy read the words written in large black letters on the big marker of death.

The older sister was in panic but she hid it under a cheerful demeanor.  
"This isn't the only exit," she remembered. "We will just use another one."  
"I have the feeling it will be of no use," Lucy presumed with gloomy words. "Whatever is doing this wants to keep us here."  
"Like, we could make a ladder out of gravestones and earth," Leni suggested. "You are good at grave robbing, right?"  
"I want to become an undertaker," Lucy began calmly. "I want to dig up graves and NOT rob the dead. But I understand what you mean." Lucy shrugged with her shoulders. "But I would prefer to get away from here without desecrating graves, especially at a place where unspeakable things could be in them."  
"Like, those are corpses, they are not unspeakable," Leni explained friendly.  
"I know very well what corpses are," Lucy explained slowly and dry. "I mean beings no human should ever see. Except me and some of my friends, we are prepared."  
"Like, whatever, come now."

Leni took Lucy's hand and they got on their way.

* * *

The tension was thick for Leni while Lucy didn't seem to care. Leni again looked every few seconds in every direction to spot monsters. They were walking along the wall around the cemetery in the hopes to find another way out.  
"Leni, what is your Problem?"  
"The 'Lampshades' could attack," Leni explained. "They tend to appear out of nowhere behind me."  
"Lampshades?"  
"They are little with pale skin and black heads, like, they look like lampshades," explained Leni. "They also have like very sharp nails."  
"Doesn't sound that dangerous," Lucy commented. "But your description sounded non-threatening."  
"You saw one of them in the cages, right?"  
"I think so, yes," confirmed Lucy. "They look creepy but not so dangerous."  
"Like, they attacked me in a group once," told Leni. "They are fast, they move unpredictably and they made me bleed. If they come, stay behind me; just stay behind me, okay?"  
Lucy nodded, surprised by the serious tone in her sister's voice. "Yes, sister."

They reached a door; probably an entrance/exit for the cemetery, a normal wooden door but it was closed. Lisa tried to pick the lock but it wasn't working either.  
 _What now?_ , she thought to herself.

Lucy noticed some movements behind nearby trees. While Leni was thinking she slipped over and looked behind them. There she saw one of the Lampshades a few feet away from the tree doing something over a grave. A shovel probably for digging up a grave was placed besides the fleshy-tombstone.  
She crept up slowly to see what the Lampshade was doing. Careful, she walked step by step closer to the creature until she was directly behind it. What she saw it doing let her almost scream out in shock. The Lampshade was scratching a male corpse it probably just had dug out of the earth. The corpse was cut open and the little creature took little pieces of flesh and stuck them beneath her black head from where Lucy could hear gnawing like sounds. Lucy tried to walk backwards again, slowly so she wouldn't alert the creature to her presence. But then a croaking sound behind her made the other creature stop in its proceedings and forced Lucy to turn around to behold another one of the lampshades.

"HELP!" Lucy screamed in fear. "LENI!"

Leni, who still had tried to pick the lock, came running and saw her sister threatened by two Lampshades.  
"Lucy, run, to the sides!" Leni shouted. "Run before…"  
The corpse-eating creature suddenly made a few steps forward and scratched Lucy's back which made her yelp in pain.

"Get away from her!"  
Leni wasn't willing to risk Lucy's life with the gun. She took out her knifes and charged the other one while Lucy stumbled away from the one who attacked her. Its erratic movements made Lucy only panic more which let her fall to the ground; get up and to the ground again. She bumped against the tombstone and through the collision the shovel fell into her lap. She grabbed the shovel and thrusted it at the Lampshade which was attacking her. She hit it in the chest and pushed it away from her. Lucy got up again and, with adrenaline and fear filling her body, she swung the shovel with all her might onto the head of the monster. The monster screamed and scratched around in all directions like a wild animal. Lucy continued to hit the thing on its head until it fell down but Lucy didn't stop. She pummeled onto the monster until Leni intervened.

"Stop! It is dead!" she shouted and held her sister's arms. "It is dead, you are safe."  
Lucy let the shovel fall to the ground and leaned against Leni who embraced her.

She stroked over her hair and whispered calming words into Lucy's ear who was shaking and holding back her tears. She clung to Leni's dress and Leni let her.

Both stayed like this for a while until Lucy had calmed down. She said: "I want to go home."  
"Like, stay behind me and take the shovel with you," the older one advised. "I will bring you home."

* * *

Regardless of wherever they walked, they only walked into dead ends or closed exits. They only encountered more Lampshades, either attacking them, doing something they didn't want to know more about or walking somewhere. No way to escape this cursed cemetery anywhere.

"We are trapped," Lucy concluded. "This place doesn't want us to leave."  
"The place?" Leni asked in a confused tone. "But a place doesn't live."  
"Au contraire, my dear Leni," Lucy countered. "A place, a location, even a house can be alive. Time, events, people and changes can fill a place with a substance, an essence if you will. Something that gives a place an atmosphere, an aura. Do you understand?"  
"Is it magic?"  
Lucy shook her head. "No, it is not magic, but it can become magic or at least help magic to work."  
"Like, for the demon summoning rituals you like to do sometimes?"  
"Yes."  
"Please don't do that here," Leni requested. "It could work."  
"I think so too."

The two walked through a part of the cemetery with more trees and spotted a little house. It was behind a behind a few of the trees, away from the other ways and graves and a little way lead to it.  
"Looks like a shed," Leni concluded. "Maybe we can find a key which will lead us out of here."  
"And something to eat," Lucy hoped. "I am hungry."  
"When we get home I can make you something," Leni promised. "The refrigerator is still working and I found some food in it and it still looked edible."

The two walked to the shed. It looked dismal, old and abandoned. The door was unlocked so they could enter it easily. The insides were dusty and, after Leni found the light-switch, not very impressive looking. Leni closed the door behind them and they started their search.

"Here is a strange looking energy drink," Lucy informed Leni and took the drink from the shelf.  
"Drink a little from it," advised Leni and remembered that Lucy was hurt during the battle. "It will heal your wounds."  
"Really?" asked Lucy doubtful.  
"I tried one after some of the nasty little Lampshades ganged up on me," Leni told her younger sister. "It worked very well, I felt and looked like new."  
"You drank something which could have turned out poisonous?"  
"Like, I was careful," Leni responded. "Trust me."

Lucy sighed, opened the drink and nipped at it. She made a grimace because of the bitter taste but looked more relieved as well. She drank a little bit more and closed the lid again.  
"I feel better," she informed Leni. "Physically better. My soul is still filled with the darkness of eternity."  
"Like, is it darkness from this place?"  
"No."  
"Very well."

While the two were searching for more useful stuff, Lucy asked: "Why are there energy drinks lying around that can heal wounds?"  
"Somebody placed them there," Leni answered nonchalantly.  
"But why?"  
"Because somebody does that for people who get lost here?"

Leni's answer was not very satisfying for Lucy who wanted to respond as she found another note.  
She read it out loudly.

 _June 27_

 _There is somebody. The priest doesn't believe me but I know that somebody is sneaking around on the cemetery at night. It is not the groundskeeper or the gravedigger; it has to be somebody else. Somebody is doing something unnatural and heretical here. Something that defies god and his creation. A demon, a witch, a warlock, a heretic! I will find that heretic and drag that person before the priest. If I had my will I would kill such heathens but the laws of this country are corrupt, on the side of the godless._  
 _If I had my will they would all suffer, I would make them scream and when they not repent they should burn. Burn like the monsters they are._

"He doesn't sound very happy with his life," Leni saying her thoughts out loud. "I wonder if he is here."  
Lucy just stared at the words. Leni wasn't sure why she just was staring at them and decided to continue her search.

"I found ammo for my gun!" she declared. "Also another type of ammo. Bigger than the other type of ammo."  
Lucy came over and looked at the new type of bullets. "I'm not an expert but I think those are used for rifles."  
Leni shrugged with her shoulders. They would need every bit of firepower they could get to survive here. Even though she disliked the idea of getting another weapon but the situation forced her to obtain every good weapon she could find.

Something rumbled behind a crate. Leni took her gun, let it fall, fumbled it back into her hands and targeted the crate. Lucy came behind Leni again and both slowly approached the crate. It didn't make any more strange sounds but the bloodstreams of the two sisters were now filled with adrenaline. Leni lifted the lid and threw it to the side before stepping back. As nothing jumped out of the crate, Leni looked inside it. She only found a statue of Jesus in the crate, lying on its back.  
"Our lord and savior just wanted to get out of the crate," Leni joked. "The Statue probably just fell to the ground."  
"Don't touch it," Lucy requested seriously. "It may bite."

The two were finished anyway and wanted to go. They heard another rumble from the same crate. Before Leni could stop her Lucy looked inside.  
"Jesus is now on the cross."  
Leni looked at the statue to confirm her words.  
"Let's just go, okay?"

* * *

After they had left the shack they decided to go deeper into the wood-part of the Graveyard. Maybe they could find there something which could help them to escape. The sights didn't improve while they walked through the woods. The faces on the trees looked here even more terrifying and Leni saw a Lampshade wandering away from them into the darkness.

"There is another crypt," noticed Lucy and pointed at one. The surface of this one looked like stapled together rusty steel plates. It was an odd design for a crypt in the eyes of the two who walked around it to have a better look at this strange crypt. The Entrance was sealed off with bars of steel with no visible way to get in.

"Why would…."  
Leni stopped. She saw something behind the bars she hadn't really noticed at first. She turned her flashlight on and she saw a… Thing.  
She never had seen such a being before. It was covered in something white, like fur but it all came from the head, making it also look like hair. The hair reached to the ground, the end of it lying all around this being. The creature had the same height as Leni but was with the stuff around her it looked like it had more mass than her. The only other noticeable thing was the black orb which was visible through the hair. It was within the area a human would have its head but this was no human. It looked like it wasn't moving but Leni noticed a few little Movements. Not to mention that her radio was emitting static again, louder and more intense than every time she faced a monster before.

The monster so far have scared Leni but this one scared her more than the others, it scared her more than she ever thought could be possible. It just stood there and stared at her, made nothing else. But it emitted something dark and threatening. Something Leni never wanted to encounter.  
Lucy pulled Leni's hand, signaling to Leni that she just wanted to go away from that thing.  
Leni, who needed a few seconds to get the message, just took Lucy's hand to run away with her.

They reflected in the monster's orb as they vanished out of its field of view.

* * *

Leni ran fast, almost dragging Lucy behind her who wanted to get away from the monster too but not as eagerly as Leni. She didn't stop until Lucy forced her to halt because she was out of breath.

"I am sorry, Lucy," Leni said and kneeled one knee to her sister. "Like, I was just too scared."  
"Same for me. Don't sweat it. This creature scared me more than the Lampshades."  
They looked around to see where they are after their escape. It was another array of eldritch tombstones and graves bordering on pathways. The two sisters looked at the inscriptions of the horrific tombstones.

 _None shall escape._

 _Are you afraid to die?_

 _This place is demise._

 _Mommy? I am scared. Help me!_

 _Show responsibility for your mistakes!_

 _They crawl and wait. They wait and crawl._

 _Bloody gnarls come from the ground._

 _Don't think about it too much. It makes no difference._

 _Here lies what you loved the most in life._

 _Here lies Rita Loud, mother of 11._

The last one let the two step back in horror. Leni couldn't comprehend the thought that their mother could lie here. She hoped it was a lie; it had to be a lie!  
"Is that really mom?" asked Lucy fearfully.  
"No… No!" Leni proclaimed with as much certainty as she could muster. "Like, this is just a trick from this place! Don't fall for it. Look around for something useful and don't look at more epitaphs!"

The two found two energy drinks and two clips of gun ammo behind the tombstones and another note from that diary.

 _July the 12th_

 _I saw her! It was a female, a child! She was leaving a grave in the deeper parts of the cemetery, probably after conducting some strange pagan ritual. Oh, how our society has fallen if a child is already corrupted, is a witch ready to sacrifice babies on her unholy altar?! When I get my hands on her I will purify her from evil! Then I will tell her parents. They either knew of this and did nothing or had no idea. In the former case I will purify them as well._

This read for Leni as if the Author was losing more and more of his mind. She was not a fan of so intolerant folks and reading his diary made him not more endearing.  
"Do you think he is here?" asked Lucy. "Was he teleported to this place like we were?"  
"Like, why should he spread the pages out of his diary all over the cemetery?"  
"He could be overwhelmed be the fact that his god stranded him in this place," Lucy theorized. "This would test the faith for anyone."  
"If we find him we will help him," decided Leni. "Nobody deserves to land in such a place."

"Leni?"  
"Yes?"  
"Do you hear something?"  
"No, I don't, the radio is too loud."

Lucy sighed. "I don't hear any monsters nor do I see any creature but the radio is emitting static."

Leni looked up in the sky, thinking that there could be a flying creature but she beheld nothing except total darkness. Around here however the ground started to rumble. Leni didn't feel anything but she heard rumbling noises coming from the graves around them. Leni took her gun out and Lucy readied her shovel. Something was going on and they both had an inkling what it could be but they didn't want to speak it out. They slowly walked backwards away from the graves and waited for what they thought would be happen. They waited; they stood still while the rumbling and the noise continued. The two continued to walk slowly backwards.  
The noise from underground stopped.  
The two sighed in relief.  
As they turned around they faced an army of little lampshaded creatures, not moving and not making any sounds. It looked like a mass of dark foreboding damnation, despair and death.

Leni fired a shot in panic until a monster was dead and hell broke loose. The blonde just grabbed Lucy's hand and both ran like the devil himself was hunting the two. But they would have preferred the devil in that moment.

* * *

Leni heard the screams and the movements, the howls and the stomping feet. They produced a very disjointed sound of a mob chasing, making Leni think that they still move at random but she didn't dare to look at them. She only looked from time to time to Lucy to make sure she wouldn't get left behind. She saw the fear in her sister's face, fear of death and the unknown.

They ran over stones and roots, past tombstones, past scary trees, past more monsters and past bushes.  
"Where to go?!" shouted Lucy. "We have to hide!"  
"The church!" Leni shouted back. "We go to the church! We can barricade us in there!"  
"Trapped in a church in a horrific alternate Dimension. Sounds like a great plan," commented Lucy but they hadn't a lot of options.

They both ran like hell was behind them and that was probably not so far from the truth. Erratic moving monsters tried to close in on them in their unusual way and they made alien noises so strange and unknown they couldn't be really classified. Leni thought it sounded like a wet sponge rubbed against a steel wall but a steel wall made of an iron Leni never heard of before.

"The church!" Lucy shouted. "There is the church but… Oh… Oh, god…!"  
Leni looked at the church and was horrified. The building looked in stark contrast to the rest of the surroundings, shiny in white and golden colors. But the more haggard thing was the many corpses on crosses on the roof and on the walls of the church. Corpses of more Lampshades, hanging there like Jesus Christ, nailed through the palms, looking down, not moving, dead. The crosses themselves were made out of wood, colored in white like to absolve itself of the sin committed on them. Lucy looked like she would prefer to run into the army of monsters instead of running to that church but Leni just led her to the church. Regardless of how dangerous it looked, the monsters were the bigger threat at the Moment.

She ran up to the door which was colored in gold and shined upon the two. Leni opened the door, shoved Lucy in and slammed the door shut. A few seconds later several bodies tried to get the door open again.  
"I need the key!" screamed Leni. "Search for the key!"  
"Where?" asked Lucy in panic. "I don't know where it could be!"

Lucy ran without thinking from one place to another, looking everywhere for a key or something else to close the door. This was the first time in Lucy's life she really was scared for her life and for the one of her sisters. She ran into the personal rooms of the priest besides the podium and searched the entire room in a haste but she found nothing in the drawers, in the bed, under the desk, behind the pictures, under the rug or elsewhere in the room. She ran into every single room in the church and searched every bench, the thought of the attacking monster hordes making her move faster, helping her to ignore the exhausting which started to encompass her body. Panic and fear gave her more strength than ever before in her life but her desperation level was also increasing.  
 _Wait… Jesus!_ she thought and the sudden hunch let her run up the Jesus-Cross over the Altar. She inspected the cross and found the key, there hanging at one of the nails who nailed the person who so many call savior to the cross. Lucy's and Leni's salvation was this key. Lucy quickly grabbed from the nail.

She ran back to Leni. "Leni, I…."  
Leni was making her fingernails, the door closed behind her, while some soft banging was heard from the other side.  
"The door…"  
"I locked it with my hairpin," explained Leni casually while inspecting her nails. "I thought it may work on this door and the attack from the Lampshades wasn't that strong."  
"You can lock doors with a hairpin too?" asked Lucy in disbelief and out of breath.  
"Yes," Leni answered. "Like, not many people know that but you can, totes, pick a lock to close it as well as opening it."  
"Sigh. I found this key for nothing," Lucy enunciated and showed Leni the key. "I almost peed myself in fear."  
"Don't worry Lucy," Leni assured Lucy in kind words and embraced her. "You don't have to fear anything with your big sister protecting you."  
She took the key and looked at it. On the grip were the words `Master Key´ engraved. "We can open every door here now!" Leni understood quickly. "Did you hear? Oh."

Lucy didn't stop the embrace; once again she clung to her older sister. Leni led her to one of the benches and sat down there with her sister on her lap. She took the time to look around. The church looked clean and neat now, completely different than before. The benches were clean and looked like new, the ceiling was an arc in calming deep blue color with pictures of scrolls that had words written in Latin on them, the walls were painted in a calming more dim white tone while golden ornaments separated the white upper half of the walls with the black lower half and the stained glasses showed scenes of good Christians showing love of compassion to outcasts and people of other believes.

The scenes did nothing to Leni. She was in complete panic.

Leni didn't know that she was able to act in such a convincing manner and was happy that she didn't have to show her sister how terrified she really was. Having found the solution on her own had made her more confident that they may survive but she was scared after this horde of monsters had hunted them. She was worried about what could have happened to Lucy, to herself and how her family and friends would have felt over their death. She didn't understand anything, she didn't know why this place tried so hard to kill them but at the same time it looked like it helped them. Nothing made sense to her and she wasn't sure if she would get any answers before her death.

She shook these bad thoughts out of her mind and caressed her little sister's head. Carefully, she put her other hand on Lucy's back and began to rub it in an evenly motion, up and down, up and down. Lucy wasn't crying to Leni's surprise, she was just breathing heavy and trembling in her lap. She never had seen Lucy this helpless and scared before and she doubted it would be the last time.  
"I am here Lucy," Leni whispered to her sister. "I am here and I will protect you."  
At the same time she wondered how she would accomplish this and if she even was able to protect herself. Only time could tell.

"I am hungry," Lucy finally muttered. "Do you have something with you?"  
"Sorry," Leni whispered calmly in a remorseful tone. "I didn't find anything to eat so far."  
"Can we look for something to eat?"  
"Of course, Lucy," Leni promised. "We will search when you feel ready. Rest as long as you want."  
Lucy snuggled closer to her bigger sister in response, searching for warmth and safety.  
 _This wasn't as I hoped it would be,_ Lucy thought to herself.

* * *

"Did you find anything?"  
Leni was searching through the bureau of the priest who was in chaos after Lucy stormed through on the search for a key. They found some ammo here but nothing to eat, not even a tiny apple.

"Do you think this church has a fridge for the acolytes?" Lucy asked her sister while looking in one of the cupboards. "To keep the holy water cold and the communion wafers fresh."  
"Do you think they have cream too?" mused Leni. "Like, I could totes go for some wafers with cream right now."  
Lucy found another energy drink in a cabinet and gave it to Leni but there was nothing to eat in sight.  
"Let's try the other rooms," Leni suggested and so they did.

Leni was slowly becoming skeptical about their new situation. This church looked safe, clean and the temperature was excellent. Even somebody less smart than most other people would clue in of the suspicious nature of this set-up.  
"Keep close to me, Lucy," Leni ordered. "If you see or hear anything strange, inform me."

They entered a room on the opposite site from the priest's office, a few steps down and found the breakroom. It was a large room with a pool table, a soccer table, a TV in one of the corners, two tables, pictures on the walls, a dartboard and some other niceties.  
"Like, it looks cozy," thought Leni loudly and spotted a little refrigerator. "Oh, maybe there is something to eat."  
"A monster could be hidden in there," warned Lucy. "Waiting for us hungry girls to go there so it can eat us instead. An old demon of ice and snow hidden in marmalade and cheese."  
"How would such a demon taste?" Leni jokingly asked. "Like, Mango? Kiwi? Cherry? Chocolate?"  
"I could go for some strawberry."

Leni, with a drawn pistol, opened the fridge and found nothing dangerous in it, just food and some normal beverages. Leni took out a sandwich and sniffed at it to determine if it could be poisonous even though she had no idea how something poisonous would smell. She tasted a little bit of and she didn't taste anything bad or poisonous either despite not knowing how a poison would taste like.  
"I think the stuff is safe," Leni finally said. "Bon appetite, Lucy."  
Lucy nodded, grabbing another sandwich and some milk to share it with Leni. They sat together down on one of the tables where Lucy found another page of the diary.

 _July the 16th_

 _Stupid ignorant acolytes, playing games instead of searching sinners and making them repent. The priest accepts it, even encourages them to take breaks. Fun should be nothing that we should strive for; only our work for the Lord is of importance. Not our happiness, health or other people, we should only live and die for the Lord!_

 _I tried to convince the priest of getting rid of the breakroom; I explained to him that those trivialities in there could lead to way worse sins in the long run. They could start to gamble, steal, sleep with prostitutes, murder innocent believers and scribble vile words on walls._

 _When I overtake this poor community I swear to the lord I will get rid of all the heretics. None will be welcomed in my church who isn't anything but a devout follower of the Lord._

"I bet he has many friends here," suspected Lucy sarcastically as she finished reading.  
"He sounds like a very sad fellow," Leni suspected. "I guess he doesn't even have many friends with that attitude. Even under people who think like him."  
"I know some Goths with such extreme views on our culture, even you wouldn't like them Leni," Lucy told her older sister. "They remind me of the author of this diary."  
"I will give anyone a chance," Leni claimed. "Like, nothing is sadder than being totally alone. Nobody deserves that."

The two finished their meal and drinks soon after. They decided to examine the church more closely in hopes to figure out what was going on and because they hadn't anything better to do while being trapped in there. They found nothing in the break room aside from a billiard que which Leni took as another melee-weapon, just in case.

"The church in the foggy place had a cellar," Lucy mentioned. "Maybe this one has also one?"  
"Good idea Lucy," Leni replied. "But… Just in case let's search the other rooms first, including the room of the priest."  
"Are you scared going down?"  
"Are you?"  
"To be honest… Yes."  
"Being scared is nothing to be ashamed off," Leni exclaimed. "Just don't let yourself be controlled by your fear."

One room after another was explored by the two Louds, finding a little ammunition and energy drinks. Leni decided to give Lucy a few of the energy drinks in case they got separated. Lucy told her that she would try everything not to end up alone in this terrible place but they both agreed to better safe than sorry.

After searching every room and not finding any more hints, notes or possible exits, they moved to the place Leni found the way into the cellar the last time. The door was at the same place and looked similar, just cleaner. Leni drew her gun and approached the door, turning the knob and opening it. Leni turned the light on and the illuminated cellar didn't reveal the presence of any monsters. They didn't find any more as they descended the steps into the cellar itself and just found some barrels, a desk, shelves with different objects in them with a lot of dust and cobblestone walls.  
Some details were different but in general the cellar had the same outline as it had in the fog world. Also the door that was leading to the crypts before was closed and the doorknob was broken.

"We could try and pry the door open with the shovel," Lucy suggested. "But I have the feeling that we don't find anything important there."  
"Why is that?"  
"It is just a feeling, Leni," Lucy explained. "But I am pretty sure of it. We shouldn't do it as long as we have other options and forcing a way through such a door could cost us time and energy."  
Leni nodded in response and looked around. This cellar looked so normal, she didn't think she would find anything interesting. She found a little ammunition for her pistol but nothing more. She wanted to call for Lucy as she called her first.  
"I found something!"

Leni turned to the direction Lucy was shouting from and saw her kneeling before a wall. As she came closer she noticed how Lucy tried to remove something out of the wall.  
"I found something, the cobblestones in this wall are loose", explained Lucy as she managed to remove one. "Maybe here is something that can us help to escape."  
"Do you need help?"  
"No thank you, it is not so hard."  
A minute later Lucy had laid open a little secret chamber. It was very dark in there, she wasn't able to see anything. "Can I have some light?"  
Leni turned her flashlight on and lit up the dark little secret hidden hole. Lucy spotted a plastic bag and another note from the diary on it.

 _August the 12th_

 _I got her!_  
 _I really got her!_  
 _And then that unconsecrated priest let her go, didn't even tell the police!_  
 _Just a stern warning, nothing more!_  
 _How could he let that heretic go?! She desecrated our beautiful cemetery! She said she wanted only to talk to her dead grandmother, any use of the dark arts regardless of how well intentioned they are is wrong! Whatever she would have conquered it would have devoured her and everybody else such a creature could get his hands on!_

 _We live in a world in which such a heretic could conjure beasts of incredible power! Alone the existence of those people who call themselves Goths is a crime. And if the priest is too ignorant to realize the danger then I have to do something._

Lucy was silent.  
Leni just put her hand on Lucy's shoulder. "Lucy, is he writing about you?"  
"No, it is somebody else," she answered after a few seconds. "Nobody captured me as I tried to summon the ghost of grand-grandmother Harriet."  
"Were you able to talk with her?"  
"Just for a second," Lucy told her older sister in a sad tone. "I don't know if she was happy, angry, sad or thankful about me summoning her."  
Leni wouldn't have believed that Lucy was able to summon a ghost in the past but after what happened the last few hours she was more open to the supernatural now but she also wanted to be out of it as soon as possible.

"I will get the bag," Lucy informed her sister, reaching with her hands for it. "I wonder what…"  
Lucy screamed.  
"Lucy?"  
"Everything is all right," said Lucy, still a little startled. "Just some little pieces of stone trickling on my hands."  
She grabbed the bag and tried to pull it towards her.  
Something in the bag grabbed its hands around Lucy's.

"AH!"  
Lucy tried to pull away her hand but whatever was grabbing her pulled her into the hole and disappeared with her into the darkness.  
"LUCY!"

But her sister was gone, nothing was there as she grabbed into the darkness.  
Leni, acting on instinct and love, jumped into the hole after her and fell down into the darkness.

* * *

After a short fall she landed face first on the ground which hurt like hell but, to her own surprise, didn't seriously injure or kill her. She rolled onto her back, rubbing her paining face and nose. Nothing felt broken or seriously damaged, nor did she find blood anywhere.  
 _How strange,_ she thought for a moment until she remembered that she had to search for Lucy. She looked around and realized she was now in a cylindrical room decorated with white frescos of witch killings. Pictures on which women were burned at stakes, impaled on other stakes, stoned to death, flayed alive, beheaded, quartered and slapped.

"I don't like where this is going," Leni mumbled to herself. Next she noticed the bag lying beside her, the same bag that dragged Lucy into this hole. Slowly, the young girl drew her gun and knife, got into a squatting position and came slowly closer to the bag. She rammed her knife into the plastic case, pushing it deep into whatever was in it. No movement, no sudden grab for Leni's hand. Whatever was in the bag was not alive.  
At the moment.  
Leni continued to cut the bag open afterwards and it revealed something horrific.  
It was another dead body but this one looked more unsettling than the others Leni saw so far. This one looked realistic, no over-stylized corpse like the others were.

It was the body of a young girl, 8 years estimated Leni and had the same height of Lucy and wore similar clothes too.  
Leni shook in fear.  
 _Is this…?_ She couldn't finish the thought, the idea was too much for her. She took a closer look at the face of the corpse and sighed in relief. "You are not Lucy but I am still sorry for your loss."  
She noted that the dead girl had her arms crossed over the chest, holding another diary note.  
The teenager respectfully removed the note from the dead girl's hands and started to read it.

 _August the 16th_

 _YES! IT IS DONE!_  
 _It was so easy, so simple, so uncomplicated!_

 _The little demonic Goth was easy enough to grab and get her to the church. There I had enough time to punish her! She screamed, she begged, she cried for her parents but I didn't show mercy. I chastised her until she was only a whimpering wreck, one who almost could me convince of true atonement._

 _To make up for her sinful ways she has to burn._

 _Tonight I will rescue her soul and make this world a little more holy again._

Leni got pale.  
The corpse of the girl before her looked like Lucy.

Leni got up and looked around for an exit.  
She spotted a red door between a fresco of a young woman being sawed in half and another one of an older woman who was staked in a very uncomfortable way.

She got onto her feet and had that door opened in seconds, storming in like a wild wind. She didn't stop, didn't think.  
She ran through undecorated narrow tunnel, hearing chants and singing, similar choir but deeper, more menacing with sinister intentions behind them. She accelerated her run.  
A few minute later she saw another door, a black in color and plain as the tunnel she was running through. She opened and ran through it while her head started to hurt again.

* * *

 _"_ _Aren't you afraid of dark magic?" Lucy asked her older sister. "Some people really don't like it."  
"If you don't use it to hurt people, it can't be bad," Leni responded with a smile. "Will you help me?"  
_

* * *

As her vision became clear once again, the young woman found herself at a new place which looked like a square. It had the illusion of an open space but there was a ceiling, colored in the black of the night, sprinkled with white spots resembling stars.  
The walls around her resembled like a village from the middle ages, with windows illuminated by the painted lights inside them. Despite this both the walls and the ceiling still showed sighs of the rusty appearance of the rest of this otherworld.

In the middle of the place large stake, made of vampire novellas and wood and on the top of it, bound was a figure in black, one Leni was familiar with, one Leni could always identify.  
"Lucy!"  
The Goth looked unharmed but barely conscious. She moaned and struggled weakly in her bonds. For Leni it sounded like they cry of a little kitten in need, probably because it was her little sister who was in peril. But even if she had sounded like an angry Tyrannosaurs (like Lori or Lola sometimes) she would have dropped everything to rescue her.  
She started a sprint as she heard something, like the 'click' of a doorknob being turned.

She looked to her left to a painting that looked like the church on the otherworldly cemetery, with another door which slowly started to open.

Leni drew her pistol into the right hand and the left one soon held the knife. She positioned herself between the stake and the slowly opening door.  
She was trembling but whatever horror would came through it she would protect Lucy from it until the end.

* * *

 **What will Leni await? What is lurking behind the door?**

 **Tune in next time if you want to know more.**

 **Thank you for reading, I hope you all had a good time.**


End file.
